A program for crisis-intervention after traumatic brain injury.

A model for crisis-intervention and family therapy is presented. Each patient admitted to the neurosurgical wards with a diagnosis of acute cerebral contusion is contacted by one member of the psychotherapeutic team within 10 days. When the patient is psychotherapeutically approachable, he is offered crisis-intervening therapy followed by family therapy when considered appropriate. The effect of the crisis-intervention is gauged one and two years after the trauma. At the same time the treated and non-treated patients' psycho-social functioning is investigated. The preliminary results suggest that patients who participated in the program achieved an overall better adjustment to life after the traumatic brain injury than did those without psychotherapy.